The Memorial Chapel was dedicated in 1921 to remember the servicemen of the parish who gave their lives in the Great War, later incorporating the names of those who have died in later conflict. The church is hoping to fully research every one of the men named on its Memorial Chapel Roll of Honour so they can be properly remembered for future generations.
Researchers Martin and Lindsey Stone carried out painstaking research to build case studies of every one of the 126 Great War dead in time for the
100th anniversary of the Armistice in 2018. Their efforts caused a frenzy of media activity, including live BBC TV coverage from the church.
At the Remembrance Sunday service on 10 November 2019, we were able to identify for the first time each of the servicemen commemorated in our Memorial
Chapel and honour them using their Christian name and age and when they died. Three new individuals have been added, with some outstanding details
remaining. As a direct result of this work, we were joined at the Remembrance service by descendants of several of the servicemen.
The couple then turned their attention to gathering information about the WW2 names. The Second World War analysis required a different process and generated records with a very different flavour to those of the First War.
The Second War analysis revealed another level of the extreme violence of total war, and has been well described as somehow more personal. Again,
all the St Matthew's names identified have been of men, while nationally CWGC records for the period contain a great number of civilians and
servicemen male and female. The other amazing anomaly is that of the 42 brave men who fell in the Second War, three were De-Havilland Mosquito
pilots. Two of these Mosquito pilots fell on operations, one was lost in June 1945 after a distinguished operational career and his transfer
'to rest' as an instructor on an Operational Training Unit (OTU). These are two of the few anomalies from a statistical point of view, as the
42 men listed cover almost every theatre of war and every mode of service that you could read about in a short tome on the war itself.
As examples, one third of the men listed served in the Royal Air Force. One of these was a Spitfire pilot who lost his life on what is now
Battle of Britain Day. Three of the aircrew were on Coastal Command operations, three were Mosquito pilots, one of these a Flt Lieut with the
Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar, five were Bomber aircrew. Twenty-three of the men served in the British Army across the different regiments
of infantry, artillery, and service support. Three of the men were Royal Navy including a Royal Marine. Two men were prisoners of the Japanese.
Another escaped from the Japanese in his Catalina aircraft with his crew mates, and was reported rescued in an article in a local newspaper,
when in fact a few days after his escape he was tragically killed in an air reconnaissance mission off Ceylon. Many of the men were married.
At least one had a daughter whom he would never meet. Whatever their situation, they were all mothers' sons.
We have men listed on the St Matthew's World War Two screens that are buried in Northampton, North Africa, France, Holland, Germany, Italy and
Formosa (now Taiwan). We have men listed who died in the Battle of Britain, the evacuation of France in 1940, Singapore, Ceylon, Burma, D-Day
operations, Alamein and the advances through Sicily and Italy. The screens include those who are listed as having no known graves and are
represented on their service memorials, for example Runnymede for the Royal Air Force, Chatham and Plymouth for the Royal Navy. The remains of
several of those who were originally thought to have no known graves or who were otherwise not appropriately remembered or buried were, subsequent
to the action in which they were lost, recovered and re-interred - process entitled then as 'Graves Concentration'. This is a feature in the records
of several of our Second War fallen. Another feature of our Second War fallen is that the majority were killed in the latter years of war.
We can deduce and support several matters from this for a wider understanding of the period, the men and their families. For example, Field Marshall
Montgomery may well have been correct to be considered cautious with his manpower even late in the war. His reticence to support multi-national
operations, namely with the Americans at the expense of British and Commonwealth lives, may have been well founded. We can also deduce that our
lists of men are representative of numbers and losses across the three services as a whole, as well as the geographical areas in which this war was
principally fought. And perhaps finally a lesson that most of us would already realise, that volunteering or being nominated as aircrew in either
war was indeed a dangerous game.
Any further information, particularly from members of the families, and where medals, photographs, postcards and letters could be scanned for reference,
would add considerably to the academic rigour of the efforts to identify and further honour the men concerned. Progressing the work on the Second War
fallen has led us back to families with links to the First War fallen, adding clarity to the work achieved so far. Mr Stone said:
If you can help, please contact Martin Stone via the Parish Office.
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